


Traditional American Values

by showgirlsteve



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Homophobia, M/M, One Shot, avengers vs the media
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-08
Updated: 2014-12-08
Packaged: 2018-02-28 17:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2740757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/showgirlsteve/pseuds/showgirlsteve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve doesn’t mean to out Bucky to the media, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Traditional American Values

Steve doesn’t mean to do it, really. The stakes aren’t the same as they used to be, but he knows it’s still not the right thing to do.

But his best friend has been dead for ~~a whole year now how has it been an entire year~~ seventy years. Nothing Steve does can hurt Bucky, but it can help a whole lot of other people.

It won’t hurt Bucky, who would have been celebrating his birthday this week. Bucky, who would have been thrilled that it was this warm in New York in March, that it was nice enough that he could risk taking his sick, tiny friend outdoors for the day. He would have delighted in using his birthday as an excuse to get Steve to do things he might not have been talked into otherwise. (Like riding the Cyclone at Coney Island. Steve may or may not still be a little sore over that one.)

Even if it won’t hurt Bucky, it’s still one of the biggest secrets Steve has ever carried, and if he _was_ planning to share it with anyone, it wouldn’t have been his choice to blurt it out to some hack reporter. Anger, though, has never left Steve rational, or patient. It’s how he wound up in so many back-alley brawls back in the day. And Bucky’s on his mind, this time of year, and the grief and hurt is still so fresh, and Steve doesn’t realize that he’s lashing out with the pain until it’s already done.

The clock hasn’t even ticked over to 0900 and already Steve’s wishing this day would just end. He got pulled from a blissfully-dreamless sleep before the sun came up by a call for the Avengers to assemble, only to arrive at the tail end of the emergency. SHIELD already had the villains contained, and clean up of the acidic goo that somehow spread across four city blocks was well underway. Underway, but not complete, because he managed to slip and get covered in the stuff. One decontamination shower later, the other Avengers were back in bed, but Steve was still amped up from the battle that didn’t happen, so he decided to get an early start on his morning run. Between his mind racing and more incidents than usual of getting stopped by eager fans, it wasn’t quite the meditative exercise he’d been going for.  ~~(He should be getting dragged around the city by his best friend right now but instead he’s being chased by his ghost.)~~

Still, he’s had much worse days, and he’s managed to keep his calm, so when a woman in an ill-fitting pantsuit shoves a recorder in Steve’s face and asks him what he thinks of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, he’s ready to give a rehearsed answer about how it’s nice to see progress, that he’s happy for the men and women that can serve openly without fear of prosecution, but then the woman decides to talk over his reply.

“Don’t you agree that having openly gay soldiers serving on the front lines will affect unit cohesiveness?”

“I wouldn’t actually say-“

“Isn’t the unity of those fighting essential to their success?”

“Yes, of course it –“

“So, you think that putting homosexual men in active combat would be a detriment to our troops?”

“What? No, not at all.”

“Are you really able to make that call, though? This isn’t-“

Steve clenches his jaw and doesn’t wait for the next accusation to come. “Look, my team was in active combat for almost the entire time we were a unit. And Bucky? Always did just fine. Our unit bonded just fine, Bucky shot just as well or better than any other soldier. He didn’t get – distracted, or whatever you think might happen if you let homosexual men and women serve without having to hide who they are. He was a good soldier, and a great man, and I was proud to have him watching my six. I guarantee you, there are gay men serving in combat now. Some of them, their units are well aware of who they are, who they love. And they’re fine with it. When you’re out there, you’re a lot less worried about who your partner is going home to and a lot more worried about whether or not you’re getting home at all.”

He elbows his way around the cameraman who was blocking the entrance to the building he currently calls home and takes great pains not to slam the door behind him. He doesn’t see the shock on the reporter’s face slowly morph into a smile as she realizes the value of what she just captured.

Steve heads straight to his rooms and stays there with his sketchbook in hand until hunger drives him out that evening. As he slinks through the entertainment room on his way to the common area kitchen, all conversation stops. The television is on, but muted, and every Avenger is staring right at Steve.

“Is there a problem?”

“Is there a problem, he says – ow, Natasha, that hurt!”

Natasha jabs Clint in the ribs before speaking up herself. “Steve,” she begins softly, rising from place on the sofa. She shakes her head once before turning to the coffee table that doubles as a tablet, and adjusts the volume settings with one hand as she taps with the other to change the channel.

A picture of himself looks out at Steve from the television- a still from earlier that day. It fades to one of the media photos of him that seem to be plastered all over everything these days, nestled next to Bucky’s service picture in the top corner of the screen as an angry looking anchor drones on. He doesn’t catch what the man is saying, all his attention focused on the rainbow ribbon that cuts across both his and Bucky’s pictures.

His teammates are still watching him, not the news report, as the words he spewed to the reporter that morning catch up with him.  Tony comments before Steve manages to string a sentence together.

“So. That happened.”

“Tony.”

“No, what? Are we supposed to be mad about this? Really? I, for one, would like to thank Captain Progressive over here, for taking the superhero super-media spotlight off of last week’s little mishap and onto this. No more crying about property damage and accountability, just some wrinkly old homophobes getting angry that their poster child for traditional American values has decided to be a real human being after all. Let’s celebrate. Drinks all around, cheers, people!”

Tony raises his glass, but he’s the only one. Everyone else is back to looking at Steve, who crumples into the nearest chair.

“I can’t believe I said that,” he groans into his hands.

A hand brushes his shoulder. Bruce. “I hate to admit it, but Tony _is_ right, Steve.  This is a good thing. As soon as this initial reaction blows over, you’ll have helped a lot of people. It’s going to be hard for anyone to oppose repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell when everyone knows one of the most famous soldiers in modern history was gay, and that Captain America knew about it, supported him.”

“Plus,” Tony adds, “You can’t really call yourself a celebrity these days until you’ve had Fox News accusing you of man love. Welcome to the club, Cap.” He toasts Steve with his drink again.

“Wait. They think I – that me and Buck were -“

Thor has been sitting silently since Steve walked in, but he lifts his gaze now. “Were you not, Captain?”

Steve whines out a negative before burying his head in his hands again. Natasha perches on the arm of his chair, opposite Bruce, and lays her hand on his knee. “You’ll have to do some damage control.  Not everyone is going to be okay with this, but we can spin it. A lot of kids are going to be very happy to have another hero to look up to.”

Still slumped in the chair, Steve looks up at her and laughs quietly. “I don’t think this is how Bucky wanted to be remembered.” The others narrow their eyes a bit, but they don’t know what it was like. They don’t know how terrified Steve always was for Bucky. They never saw bars raided and closed down because of their patrons, in the name of cleaning up the city. They don’t understand why Steve still has to hold back a flinch every time he sees a pink triangle. The world the other Avengers grew up in is dangerous for people who prefer the company of their own gender, but when a tragedy occurs now, the public prosecutes the killer instead of celebrating. Until Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is repealed, soldiers have to hide, but most of them probably don’t worry about friendly fire taking them out before a blue card does.

Natasha puts more pressure on his leg. “This is a good thing, Steve.”

“Yeah,” Steve huffs, remembering the fear. Trying to concentrate on the future, not the past. If knowing about Bucky helps even one person, well. He straightens his back. “I guess you’re right. It is good.”

The media frenzy dies down a bit after Steve releases an official statement, but the speech he gave to that first reporter colors every interview that he gives from that moment onward. It isn’t just about Bucky’s preferences - suddenly, Steve finds himself wanting to share everything about Bucky with the world. Now that he doesn’t have to hide this one thing, he wants to tell everyone all of the other things that made up the person who was once Steve’s entire world.

On one talk show, he even tells the Cyclone story, and his smile when he does so is genuine.

He starts to get letters.

He’s gotten heartfelt letters from fans before. People have always wanted to tell Steve about the difference he’s made. There have been some amazing stories – _Captain America saved my life_ – but nothing like this.

Because –

Since Steve announced to the world at large that his best friend had been gay, so many of the letters addressed to him are not about Captain America at all.

_They’re about Bucky._

His fans tell him about how scared they were. How alone. They tell him they cried tears of joy when they saw him defend his best friend. They ask him if it’s okay that they borrowed Bucky’s strength for the final step out of closets of their own. They confess that their brothers, their sisters, their best friends had come out to them, and they hadn’t known how to react until Steve, Steve and his heartfelt support of Bucky Barnes, lit the way. They tell him that they’ve decided to join the military. Or that they’d already been to war, and felt lost in their own identities, torn between the queer community and their uniforms, and that knowing Bucky Barnes was one of their own made them feel safe. Made them realize they didn’t have to choose one or the other at all. _Bucky, Bucky, Bucky._

When Steve woke up, everything the world remembered was _Captain America and his Howling Commandoes_.

Now, for better or worse, the world remembers Bucky Barnes.

Yes, Steve thinks to himself. This _is_ a good thing.

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be a 5+1, but then I only wrote like, 2 and a half.
> 
> But I decided this bit worked as a stand-alone one-shot, so here you go. Maybe I'll revisit it someday, but probably not.
> 
>  
> 
> [Visit me on tumblr!](http://showgirlsteve.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  
> 
> Kudos are great, I love you forever for comments.


End file.
